POETS.What little is known about his circum-
stances is based on the biographical profile in-
cluded in Caroling Dusk.
Bibliography
Cullen, Countee. Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by
Negro Poets.New York: Harper & Brothers Publish-
ers, 1927.
Cuthbert, Marion Vera(1896–1989)
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Cuthbert pursued col-
lege and graduate studies in the East. She gradu-
ated from BOSTONUNIVERSITYin 1920 and used a
Kent Fellowship to fund her master’s program at
COLUMBIAUNIVERSITY. In 1942 she earned her
Ph.D. at Columbia. She devoted herself primarily
to a career in education and social outreach; she
was the dean of Talladega College from 1927
through 1930 and an active participant and board
member with the YOUNGWOMEN’S CHRISTIAN
ASSOCIATION(YWCA).
Cuthbert published at least three works dur-
ing the Harlem Renaissance. In 1933, she penned
JULIETTEDERRICOTE,a memorial tribute to the
FISKUNIVERSITYdean and YWCA administrative
member whose death was due in large part to AT-
LANTAhospitals whose racist exclusionary poli-
cies allowed them to refuse treatment to her, a
car accident victim. In 1936, Cuthbert published
APRILGRASSES,a volume of poetry that prompted
critics to comment on the absence of race-related
works. A second work, Democracy and the Negro,
also appeared that year. She was a forthright so-
cial critic who recognized, alongside her Harlem
Renaissance peers, that while the evolution of
American society was a “slow and painful” pro-
cess, “the whole structure of democracy may fail
unless its basic tenets are adhered to and serfdom
abolished in a country designed for free men”
(Cuthbert, 1).Bibliography
Cuthbert, Marion Vera. “The Negro Today.” Church and
Society(January 1932): 1–2.
Roses, Lorraine Elena, and Ruth Elizabeth Randolph.
Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies
of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900–1945.Boston: G.
K. Hall & Co., 1990.“Cynthia Goes to the Prom”Eric Walrond
(1923)
A short story about a high school girl whose prom
serves as the backdrop for her coming of age in an
unpredictable and prejudiced world. Narrated by
an omniscient and rather animated narrator, the
story follows Cynthia, a popular girl whose race has
not impeded her social relations at her predomi-
nantly white high school. When she decides to at-
tend her prom, she is subjected to increasingly
aggressive acts of racism. The insults culminate in
a scene in which her white schoolmates watch and
refuse to help her when a coat clerk humiliates her.
This work by ERIC WALRONDappeared in the
November 1923 issue of OPPORTUNITY.110 Cuthbert, Marion Vera